In packaging consumer products in bottles, particularly glass bottles, it is necessary to inspect the bottles prior to being filled with the consumer product at a packaging plant. Such inspections are necessary in order to remove from the packaging operation bottles having imperfections such as cracks, impurities, scratches, manufacturing flaws, and the like. At the present time inspection of bottles is done manually by inspectors who hold each bottle to a light source to inspect for imperfections. This manual system can be tolerated in packaging plants where filling equipment operates at relatively slow speeds. With increased speed of filling equipment such manual inspection procedures have become cumbersome and the need has arisen for a method and apparatus of inspection of bottles without the inspector handling each bottle for inspection.